Courtesy Kevin Bowen
Being a queer person in 2025 isn’t easy. A draconian government, increasingly rigid social norms and lowering standards of healthcare are all factors making America a difficult place to live if you aren’t a cisgender and heterosexual white man. Now more than ever, it’s important for people to build communities, to know their neighbors and to help each other. That’s where groups like the Santa Fe Human Rights Alliance (HRA) come into play. According to hrasantafe.org, “The mission…is to educate, engage, encourage and celebrate LGBTQ+ inclusion, pride, and acceptance for all people.” What does this mean in more specific terms? Well, it includes hosting LGBTQ+ centered events during Pride month and throughout the year, building grassroots movements in the state and working to build up the civil rights of all New Mexicans. Recently a community center for LGBTQ+ people opened in Santa Fe under the auspices of the HRA—the first of its kind in the city. We asked HRA Executive Director Kevin A. Bowen some questions regarding its use and future potential. Bowen says his org has a lot on the docket, but the HRA needs help from the community including donations and volunteer work. We wanted to learn more. This interview has been edited for clarity and concision. (Callie Elkins)
What is the purpose of the HRA’s LGBTQ+ Community Center, and how is it being used as of now?
The purpose of the center is to have a place for the Queer community in Santa Fe to go, especially a safe space that belongs to the community. And in addition to that, to provide services for the community through support groups, various activities, things of that nature. For example, we’ll be having a Queer AA group starting there, and we will start later in September with two support groups for different types of community members, which we will be finalizing this Friday [Aug. 29]. On Saturdays we open the center, and we call it Saturday Sips...we serve coffee, and people can come and hang out. That’s a regular event now. On every other Saturday, we do community conversations, which is kind of a biweekly update on what’s happening across the country, feedback from people who are participating and, depending on the Saturday, we sometimes have other topics we talk about, and get feedback from the participants on how we can best serve the community.
If there are further plans, what can you tell us about them?
We host things on a monthly basis. For example, we do Drag Bingo at Tumbleroot [Brewery & Distillery] and we do a queer little dance party at The Mystic on the last Thursday of the month. But to go back to the center right now, we’re kind of in a fundraising mode, because we need to have the center open on more set hours. Once that occurs, like if we get open one solid day a week, we will have harm-reduction clinics, other support structures. We will eventually maybe even offer supplies to people—those in the community who can’t afford it—like meal replacements, vitamins and things of that nature. So overall, the goal would be to get the center open almost every day, but it takes money. We were blessed by having an angel donor who showed up in February and saw the importance of the need of a community center—and by the way, it’s the first one ever in Santa Fe—and helped fund us for three years to pay the rent. So now we have to work to get the rest of the money pulled together, of course.
While it might seem self-explanatory, why would you say building an in-person community at this current time is especially important?
Y’know, look, having a queer center in any city is really important, but during the time, right now, I think it’s especially important, what we want to be able to do, and we’re working toward more regular output of information for people to understand where they can go if they have questions to ask. From people I’ve talked to and people who’ve talked to us, just being able to walk into a space and knowing that it’s a queer space is a big reward for most people, and being able to provide either services or needs...or if someone comes in and has a question, y’know, ‘What do I do? I can’t afford this, or I can’t afford that.’ That’s what we’re here for. Eventually, what you’re going to see us doing all fall is a lot of positive support and education for everyone that has to do with, God forbid, the insanity that we’re going to get. It’s going to be challenging for a lot of people, our immigrant community, and the Queer immigrant community, the Queer trans community, all of it.
